Brüno – or to give it its full fake working title – Brüno: Delicious Journeys Through America for the Purpose of Making Heterosexual Males Visibly Uncomfortable in the Presence of a Gay Foreigner in a Mesh T-Shirt – reunites Sacha Baron Cohen with Borat and Curb Your Enthusiasm director Larry Charles.

Those familiar with the Ali G creator’s shtick will know the drill. Here, Mr. Sacha Baron Cohen workshops the flamboyant, gay Austrian fashion TV presenter of the title – not one of the more subtle pieces in his comic armory – around parts of redneck America where placards read ‘God hates fags’.

This is full-on comedy sadism, just as Freud once prescribed. Our star delights in grossing out homophobic backwoods hunters, revels in his gloriously inaccurate Austrian diction and pushes encounters with unsuspecting stooges – most notably during his attempt to reunite Israel and Palestine – beyond excruciation.

That section with Latoya Jackson might have been lopped off due to current sensitivities, and Bono and co. might feel safe enough to record a fake charity single in his presence, but Mr. Baron Cohen has lost none of his ability to make you curl into your chair and die with mortification.

True, the narrative arc – Bruno wants to be famous – is nowhere near as satisfactory as Borat’s quest for a Baywatch wife, but when it's this funny who the hell cares.